Pope's Pain Over Abuse in Canada

(29 Apr 09 - RV) At the end of the General Audience on Wednesday, Pope Benedict met with a delegation of Canadian indigenous leaders to express his sorrow for the suffering caused to so many of their families and communities in the Residential School System, operated jointly by the government and religious organisations for over a century.

The delegation, led by the National Chief of Canada’s assembly of First Nations, Phil Fontaine, was accompanied by a number of Canada’s Catholic leaders, including the president of their bishops conference, Archbishop James Weisgerber of Winnipeg.

Philippa Hitchen caught up with them to find out more about this historic meeting which opens a new chapter in the relationship between the Church and Canada’s indigenous communities.

It wasn’t just the Pope’s words of sympathy and sorrow which brought genuine healing for those present at the audience – it was also his concrete gestures of blessing the sacred objects that the members of the delegation had brought for him: eagle feathers, symbols of wisdom and courage, a quill box, beaded moccasins and blankets, as well as a bible in their native tongue and a specially commissioned silver and turquoise cross. More than just a blessing, this action represented a vital sign of acceptance of a culture that for too long the Canadian church and people had attempted to simply stamp out..

“The object was to ‘civilise’ or ‘make them Europeans’ teach them how to function within our economy and within our culture, but in doing so we had to insist that there culture was not very helpful, indie we had other much more pejorative ways of talking about their culture”.

Archbishop James Weisgerber has been working for many years with leaders of the First Nations to try and promote healing for such traumatic experiences that affected up to a hundred thousand children from indigenous communities. He says the Pope’s expression of sorrow and support for all the victims of oppression and abuse suffered in these schools comes on the heels of similar statements from Catholic organisations in Canada

“The different elements of religious orders within the diocese which managed the residential schools have all been very clear about recognising the difficulties and pain that they have caused and expressed regret and apologies in many, many different ways”.

In his meeting with the First Nation leaders, the Pope not only prayed for healing but also stressed that such acts of abuse cannot be tolerated in today’s society. After the audience, Chief Phil Fontaine said the event marks an important step forward in the relationship with the Catholic church and allows native people to recognise the positive contribution that churches can make in the preservation of ancient cultures, languages and spiritual traditions

“It’s important that we give balance to the story we can’t deny that there was a lot of pain and suffering and that innocent children far too many were harmed and abused and so it’s important that we acknowledge that part of this experience and that there be full acceptance and acknowledgement that the Catholic Church played a part in that. So that is once part. On there other side there are all the good and positive contributions by priests and sisters and brothers in terms of building a positive relationship with the first native community, ministering to our people building hospitals and schools, preserving the indigenous language and here I should point out that we are talking about hymns and prayer books and catechism, the publication is not only in English or French but various indigenous languages!”.


Pope Benedict also encouraged Canada’s indigenous Peoples to move forwardd with renewed hope – a real challenge for many such communities still suffering the legacy of poverty, violence, suicide and substance abuse.. The task facing the Catholic community now is to support the First Nations leaders as they try to build a future of hope in partnership with all the churches and people of Canada.